Laura Benjamin

I was born in New York City in 1945. In 1967 I received a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the American University in Washington D.C. and in 1972, a Master’s Degree in Art Education from New York University. In 1983 while on sabbatical from teaching, I received an Associate’s Degree in Textile Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. In New York I also studied at The Art Student’s League, The Parson’s School of Design. In the 90’s I studied computer graphics at The New School.

Living and working in New York, I taught art in the middle school for 34 years. While on sabbatical from teaching art, I earned a degree in textile design. For the next 15 years I continued to teach and freelance as a textile designer in both home furnishings and apparel markets.

In the mid 90’s my focus turned towards computer graphics, and as an art educator, I incorporated this into my curriculum. I was awarded for a “successful practice in crossing the digital divide through art and technology” by the United States Department of Education.

I am currently living on the East End of Long Island and pursuing my work in the visual arts. My goal as an artist is to arouse the viewer through humor, color and rhythm. I have worked in acrylics and mixed media on canvas. My focus is most often on ordinary people, capturing their essence as they pass through a particular moment in time. What is significant is the portrayal of underlying humor, whimsy and curiosity that my subjects evoke. I use color, scale and pattern to reinforce the sense of energy in my work.

During the past 4 years, I have been working on a series of “Art Gone Green” collages. I utilize cut candy wrappers on canvas to give representational form, color, light and movement to my subjects. This choice of media has enhanced the humor and whimsy that is so integral a part of my work. I attempt to charge my subjects with a vibrancy and excitement that I find essential to the action of life.